Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta (1 September 1968-11 September 2001) was a member of Al-Qaeda from Egypt. Atta studied in Germany and was one of the leaders of the "Hamburg cell" with Ziad Jarrah, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Marwan al-Shehhi while meeting at the al-Quds Mosque in Hamburg; the quartet travelled to Afghanistan in 1999 to train as fighters. They went on to plan the 9/11 attacks, which Atta, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah took part in, and Atta was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 when it crashed into the World Trade Center's South Tower on 11 September 2001. He was one of the more conservative hijackers, and he never laughed, saying that he could not laugh while people in Palestine were being killed. Biography Muhammad Muhammad al-Amir Awad as-Sayid Ata was born on 1 September 1968 in Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate in Egypt. He was a Qutbi Muslim, believing in the theory of offensive jihad. In 1978 he moved to the Abdeen section of Cairo with his family and he attended Cairo University in 1990, and he learned English at the American University in Cairo. Atta later moved to Hamburg, Germany and studied at the Technical University of Hamburg and became involved with the al-Qutb Mosque. Atta was also involved with the Hamburg cell of al-Qaeda, consisting of Marwan al-Shehhi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Ziad Jarrah, fellow mosque-goers that were united in their opposition to modernization and Western culture. When Atta met with other members of the group at the al-Quds Mosque in Hamburg, Atta stated that the problem with the modern world was that people focused on cars, money, and houses, and that people did not believe in God anymore; He did not have a place in the modern world, which Atta claimed was corrupting people. Joining the Mujahideen , November 1999]] Atta had doubts about Jarrah's radicalism at first, believing that he was distracted by his girlfriend, but Bin al-Shibh vouched for him during their meeting with Mohammed Haydar Zammar, who was recruiting people for a "special mission" from Osama bin Laden himself. Before he headed to meet Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders, Atta visited Egypt and saw his parents for the last time, with his father telling him not to disappoint him and continue his studies, and his mother hugged him; Atta was saddened that this would be the last time that his family would see him alive, but he decided to proceed with his mission. Atta, Bin al-Shibh, Jarrah, and fellow Hamburg cell radical Marwan al-Shehhi attended an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan together in November 1999, where they met Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The trio were assigned a suicide mission that would involve hijacking five planes in the United States, and Atta was supposed to be one of the pilots. Mohammed spoke wtih Atta, Bin al-Shibh, al-Shehhi, and Jarrah before they left Afghanistan for Germany, and the four of them would Planning 9/11 In November 2000, Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi studied at flight school in Venice, Florida, recruited by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for the "planes operation" in the United States. In Florida, he was strict with his Islamist rules, criticizing Ziad Jarrah and other hijackers for blending in "too well", such as unbuttoning their shirts and hanging out by the pool, or criticizing Jarrah having a beer at the beach. One day, Marwan al-Shehhi came into Atta's room after Atta got up from bed to answer the door, and al-Shehhi shared with him a dream that he had of what martyrdom looked like. He said that martyrs do not feel pain when they die, but beautiful virgins lift them up into the sky to Paradise, and Atta and al-Shehhi became very excited about the attacks. Leading up to the attack, Atta was in contact with Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who was supposed to be one of the hijackers; instead, he was not allowed entry into the country by US officials out of fear that he would overstay his visa as an illegal immigrant. Bin al-Shibh gave Atta money when they met with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Tarragona, Spain and told him of dreams that he had of being a companion of Muhammad during the great battles of Islam in the 7th century; he told Atta that he would be fighting a new great battle for Islam, and would be doing a great favor. Atta bid his good friend farewell, and he headed from Tarragona back to America, having resolved a visa issue and been granted an I-20 student visa. The attack , 18 July 2001]] Atta traveled from Florida to Prince George's County, Maryland in September 2001 and met up with American Airlines Flight 77 hijacker-pilot Hani Hanjour, and he met up with fellow American Airlines Flight 11 muscle hijacker Abdulaziz al-Omari in Portland, Maine on 10 September. After spending time at a Comfort Inn, the two traveled on Colgan Air to Boston, Massachusetts. There, they boarded American Airlines Flight 11 and hijacked the flight fifteen minutes into its takeoff. At 8:46 AM on 11 September 2001, Atta and the terrorists flew the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City, causing a huge explosion and several deaths and, eventually, the collapse of the tower. This was just the first of four 9/11 attacks in the USA, which would claim almost 3,000 lives. Category:Al-Qaeda Category:Egyptians Category:Killed Category:1968 births Category:2001 deaths Category:Sunnis Category:Hamburg cell Category:Egyptian Islamists Category:Islamists Category:Egyptian emigrants to Germany Category:Hijackers